MarketMine

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October 2012

Yesterday FirstRain celebrated Halloween and this year we invited all of the Rainmakers’ kids to partake in the festivities! In preparation for the party, each section of the office was given a pumpkin to carve and each team really went all out. I was surprised by the creativity each team brought to their pumpkin, from Nick’s “pumpkin eating another” pumpkin to Daniela’s “green wig” pumpkin, to my team’s very own “carrot” pumpkin— they were all awesome! During the party we let the kids pick a winner and Carolyn/ Laura’s “cat” pumpkin came out victorious.

Julie organized a Halloween scavenger hunt and each kid received a Halloween themed good bag—filled with candy. The kids were very excited (although the parents probably not so much).
The party was a fun excuse to bring all of the FirstRain kids together and they sure were cute!

The Semantic Technology and Business Conference takes place from October 15th-October 17th in New York City. The conference will host numerous sessions from diverse experts in many industries, as well as an expo hall exhibiting the newest semantic and big data tools and developments. For more information, email me at jlevi@firstrain.com.

The day of the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon, September 30th 2012, finally arrived; the pinnacle of lots of hard work (or not so hard) for thirteen Rainmakers. The alarm bells rang at 3:45 AM on Sunday morning. It may have crossed our minds to hit the snooze, but the excitement of the marathon was enough to drag us out of bed.
The night before the big day was tough. Most of the participants were nervous, with the fear of not completing the race on time (or at all) weighing on us. We loaded up on both sleep and hydration, downing 4-5 liters of Gatorade in the 24 hours leading up to race day. Well in advance of the starting time, participants lingered near the course with running bibs pinned to their t-shirts and timing chips fastened to their shoes. Some listened to music to relax their minds. The morning was cool and breezy. Varun and Priyankar were the first of the Rainmakers to reach the packed venue. The DJ’s music filled the morning air as people stretched their sleepy muscles and fit in last minute exercises. At last, amid many speculations, our MYSTERY RUNNER was revealed. Nobody could have guessed our mystery runner was Gaurav Chauhan, who had been following a very secret regimen of workouts and an office diet of carrots, almonds, sprouts and apricots.
We gathered at the starting point, where people of all ages had turned up for the mega event. Moving forward wasn’t easy, as thousands of people with the same idea shoved and pushed their way through. The weather gods were not generous at the race’s 6:40 AM start time. As we reached India Gate, the scorching sun made every step more difficult. But each Rainmaker’s mind was consumed by only one thought: to complete the race. From the first stride, a sense of team spirit and competitiveness drove the Rainmakers. In a moment of pure concentration captured by event cameras, Varun and Mohammad Athar ran side by side for a full minute, but didn’t notice each other until reviewing the marathon photos after the race. Along the way, Rainmakers were encouraged by each other, motivated by the sheer number of other runners, and supported by well-organized event facilities. Cooling tunnels, oranges, water points, energy drinks, mobile toilets, and cold sponges at various places aided Rainmakers toward their destination.
Sanjay Shankar, a dedicated competitor from the beginning, finished the race with an impressive 13.10 miles in 2:27:29. His impromptu victory dance at the finish line was caught on camera and acquired Facebook fame. His enthusiasm spoke for all of the competing Rainmakers, who finished the race with complete participation.
Close to 32,000 people, including athletes and celebrities, turned up for the race. The spirit of the marathon is alive and well among Rainmakers. This year thirteen of us competed in the race, and we hope to see our numbers grow next year.

And the winner of the FirstRain ‘be the carrot’ iPad contest is … Talitha Baker from Invisible Children! She came in first with over 600 Facebook Likes and 75 retweets (in fact, that was her winning count as of our Friday evening deadline—but as of this morning, Talitha’s Carrot pic has more than 800 FB Likes and over 80 retweets)! Great job Talitha on ‘Being the Carrot’ and rallying your networks to help you win. It was quite a battle between the close second-place finish of George Messiha at Citrix, who had over 520 Facebook Likes!
And thanks again to EVERYONE who participated in this fun contest. And of course, if you’d like to hear more about how FirstRain gives you the “carrot” to drive Salesforce adoption by delivering customer intelligence to your company’s major account sales and marketing teams–and makes your entire team as knowledgeable about your most important customers as your top performers already are, drop me a line!